April 2, 2014

expert reaction to Chile earthquake

A 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern Chile.

Prof Tim Reston, Professor of Geology, University of Birmingham, said:

“The North Chile earthquake appears to have taken place at the boundary between the subducting oceanic Nazca plate and the overriding South American plate, rupturing a portion of the plate boundary that had not slipped significantly for 125 years. Preliminary estimates place the depth of the earthquake at approximately 20km, meaning that there is unlikely to have been a major displacement of the seafloor, which explains the relatively small size of the tsunamis compared to for instance the 2011 Tohoku (Japan) earthquake.  The 2011 Japan earthquake also released perhaps ten times as much energy as the 2014 North Chile event.”